After a long and very expensive campaign, all of the cards are finally on the table. The week ended with some of the most ambitious releases we’ve seen to date: Latour at €780 per bottle ex-negociant (+30 per cent on ’09), Ausone at €1,120 (+17 per cent on ’09) and Cheval Blanc at €850 (+21 per cent on ’09). Fortunately Yquem provided the silver (or gold) lining, having been released at €420 p/b – 22 per cent lower than '09 opening prices.
As we mentioned previously on the blog, the best way to ensure that a wine is a success on the secondary market is to release it at a lower price than other available vintages. With this in mind, the graph below compares the London release price of Cheval Blanc 2010 to the current trading prices of vintages from 2000 onwards. As you can see, the estate's 2010 is clearly one of the campaign’s most difficult sells.
For the price of the 2010, buyers could opt instead for three cases of the 2001, two cases of the 2008 or one-and-a-half cases of the 2005. Indeed, the 2010 is the same price as the 1990, which boasts nearly twenty years in bottle and was recently judged perfect by Jancis Robinson. Alternatively, as one tweeter aptly highlighted, you could give Cheval Blanc a miss altogether and go straight for the real thing…
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